The present invention relates to centrifuges, in particular for the lubricant oil of an internal combustion engine, having a housing that comprises a base that forms a first housing part and a lid that is connectable to the base and that forms a second housing part, and having a rotor situated in the housing.
Centrifuges of the type named above have long been used and are generally known due to their wide distribution, including use for the lubricant oil of an internal combustion engine. In this use, centrifuges are used to separate out fine particles of dirt that are carried along in the lubricant oil of the internal combustion engine. Here it is standard for the centrifuge to be situated in a bypass flow of the lubricant oil circuit of the internal combustion engine, while in the main flow of the lubricant oil circuit a lubricant oil filter having an exchangeable filter insert is standardly present. In internal combustion engines, in particular large engines such as those used in ships or locomotives, or for large stationary drives, it is known to arrange two lubricant oil filters in parallel, each of which can be individually separated from the lubricant oil circuit. This creates the possibility of performing maintenance on the oil filter separated from the lubricant oil circuit, in particular exchanging a filter insert situated therein, without having to interrupt the overall circulation of lubricant oil. In this way, continuous operation of the associated internal combustion engine can be ensured. The double arrangement of a centrifuge is not required in this context, and is also not known, because the centrifuge is situated in the bypass flow, which can be temporarily shut off as needed without any disadvantage for the circulation of the lubricant oil, i.e. for maintenance of the centrifuge.
In many internal combustion engines, in particular the above-mentioned large engines for driving ships or locomotives, or in large stationary internal combustion engines, very large rotors, corresponding to the large quantity of circulating lubricant oil, are used in the centrifuge; in practice, these rotors can have a volume of up to six or seven liters, as a function of the size of the associated internal combustion engine. Due to its size, such a rotor has to be made of metal, which means that the rotor is relatively heavy. Moreover, due to the size and weight of the rotor containing the lubricant oil and deposited dirt, the bearing of the rotor is expensive. Due to its size and its correspondingly high mass, despite the use of a large amount of lubricant oil for its drive the rotor nonetheless achieves only relatively low rotational speeds, which is harmful from the point of view of the deposition of dirt. Moreover, another disadvantage is that in order to match differently sized internal combustion engines, many different centrifuges have to be manufactured and kept in reserve, which makes the manufacturing, storage, and marketing of the centrifuges, and stocking replacement parts for them, difficult and expensive.
Therefore, the problem addressed by the present invention is to create centrifuges of the type named above that avoid the stated disadvantages and in which in particular a more economical and simpler manufacturing can be achieved with a variable adaptability to different requirements, easier warehousing and supplying of replacement parts, and more economical and more effective operation.